Expand Your Vocabulary: Funny Words

English has a great deal of downright silly-sounding words. You know what it's like when you have to repeatedly use one word over and over, it starts to look nonsensical and loses all meaning. These words, even though some are words we use often (awkward and skirt, for example), all sound funny. Well, they do to us anyway! We hope you enjoy this list as well. Try slipping a few of the more outlandish terms into your everyday conversation!

Note: Troy and I recommend only products that we have tried and tested. These include the popular vocabulary-improvement software Ultimate Vocabulary.*

absquatulate — leave abruptly

anomalous — deviating from normal

argle-bargle — extensive meaningless writing or talk

argy-bargy — noisy arguing

awkward — causing difficulty

bauble — small trinket or decoration

blimp — an inflated airship

blubber — the fat of sea mammals, or to cry noisily

blue-footed booby — large tropical seabird

bodacious — excellent, attractive

bouffant — hairstyle with a rounded puffed up shape

brouhaha — loud, overexcited display

bumblebee — large bee

bumf — useless and dull documents

bungalow — low house

burgoo — stew or thick soup

cahoots — conspiring (in cahoots)

canoodle — kiss and cuddle

cantankerous — grumpy and argumentative

chinchilla — South American rodent with soft fur

chocks — wedges to stop a wheel from moving

codswallop — nonsense

collywobbles — stomach pain, queasiness from anxiety

conniption — fit of rage or hysterics

crapulent — relating to drinking alcohol

cummerbund — a wide sash

defenestrate — throw out of a window

diphthong — sound made by combining two vowels in one syllable

discombobulate — confuse someone

dollop — blob of soft food

doodle — draw absentmindedly

doozy — outstanding or unique thing

drizzle — light rain, or to trickle a thin stream of something over food

effluvium — unpleasant smell or secretion

ensorcell — enchant, captivate

euphonium — small tuba

fartlek — distance runners' training system

fatuous — foolish

feeble — lacking physical strength

finagle — get by dishonest means

firkin — small cask

flabbergasted — greatly astonished

flibbertigibbet — frivolous, chatty person

flume — narrow water channel

flummox — greatly perplex

flunk — fail

foibles — minor failing or eccentricity

folderol — trivial fuss

furbelows — gathered strip or pleated border of a skirt

furtive — secretive

gallivant — gad about in pursuit of pleasure

gazebo — roofed garden structure

gazump — cheat a buyer in a house sale

gewgaw — useless or worthless things

glabella — area between eyebrows

glockenspiel — percussion instrument

glom — steal

gobbledygook — nonsensical language

gobsmacked — utterly astonished

goggles — protective eyewear

gubbins — small useless bits and pieces

hogwash — ridiculous

hoi polloi — the common people

hoity-toity — snobby, haughty

hootenany — informal party with folk music

hornswoggle — cheat or deceive someone

indubitably — without a doubt

jalopy — old broken–down car

jerboa — desert rodent

jiggle — shake, wriggle

kazoo — small wind instrument

kerfuffle — commotion or fuss

knickerbockers — pants gathered at the knee

kumquat — small citrus fruit

liripoop — string on graduate's hat, or a smart trick, acuteness

logorrhea — tendency to talking to much

lugubrious — looking mournful and gloomy

masticate — chew food

mollycoddle — overindulge or overprotect someone

morass — boggy ground

namby-pamby — weak, feeble

niggle — cause slight but constant annoyance

nincompoop — stupid or silly person

oblong — having an elongated shape

occiput — back of the head

peeve — irritate

periwinkle — flower

petcock — small valve in steam engine or boiler

phalange — finger bone

philtrum — groove above top lip

pilcrow — paragraph mark

pinking shears — scissors that cut a zigzag edge

pluck — pull out quickly, or courage

poppysmic — the sound of smacking lips

quack — the sound a duck makes

quaff — drink quickly

quagga — extinct South African zebra

quibble — slight objection

quokka — Australian short-tailed wallaby

rapscallion — mischievous person, rascal

razzamatazz — showy, exciting, loud spectacle

rhubarb — plant whose stems are eaten as a fruit

rickshaw — two—wheeled vehicle pulled by a person

samovar — Russian tea urn

sassafras — North American tree, flavouring

schnitzel — thin fried crumbed meat

shenanigans — secret activity, mischief

shrubbery — a bunch of small bushy plants

skedaddle — run away

skirt — woman's garment

snarky — cutting, critical

snickersnee — long knife

snorkel — swimmer's breathing tube

snout — animal's nose and mouth

sousaphone — type of tuba

spam — tinned meat brand, or irrelevant junk emails

spew — expel rapidly in great quantities

spry — lively

squabble — noisy quarrel over something trivial

squeegee — window cleaning tool

tittle-tattle — gossip

toupee — small wig

turducken — a turkey stuffed with a duck, stuffed with a chicken

turgid — swollen and distended, or pompous language

volvox — spherical microbe

wharf — pier where a ship can be moored

widdershins — counterclockwise direction

winkle-pickers — shoes with long pointed toes

zaftig — having a pleasingly curvaceous figure

You can, of course, copy and paste this list into a program such as the popular vocabulary-building program Ultimate Vocabulary, and use its features to help you add this list of funny words to your vocabulary.

*Troy and I have agreed to receive a commission from some sales of the Ultimate Vocabulary software because we are happy to endorse that vocabulary-building software.

I'm a syndicated puzzle writer, with 8 puzzle books to my name, including Word Searches for Dummies and Cracking Codes and Cryptograms for Dummies (with Mark Koltko-Rivera). I have a background in science and graphic design, and am a trained indexer. My favourite puzzles are cryptic crosswords. and my favourite books are murder mysteries and cookbooks. I am also a very keen knitter.

I write a blog all about puzzles, called Puzzling.
Website: sutherland-studios.com.auE-mail:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it